It is such an amazing moment when people realize what they are and what they can be, and they start putting themselves out into the world. I think you can see it in people when it's happening. They look different.

That's what it's all about - making art is making something live forever. Human beings especially - we can't hold on to them in any way. Painting and art is a way of holding onto things and making things go on through time.

The faces people make when they are photographed and the face they have when you draw them are very different.

Romanticism is not just about being in a fixed state of endless beauty, because you can't live like that or live on that, that's what I've learnt.

To paint well, I need to be enraptured by my subjects.

I lived in London for a time in the '90s and I love it here. You know, I just go and see shows and have great dinners and walk around.

Theres something in music that fascinates me - how it communicates emotion so immediately. Thats something I wanted in my paintings.